San Francisco Citizen

Via Jamie Whitaker’s Rincon Hill blog comes news of a fight against consideration of the so-called “Beale Street Alternative“ for the San Francsico terminus of California’s nascent High Speed Rail line.

I don’t have a dog in this hunt, but you, well take a gander if you’d like:

“Save High Speed Rail in San Francisco

Targeting: Supervisor Chris Daly (District 6, City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisor), Medhi Morshed (Executive Director, CA High Speed Rail Authority) and Curt Pringle (Chair of the Board, CA High Speed Rail Authority)

Started by: April Veneracion

Demand the California High Speed Rail Authority stop its consideration of the infeasible Beale Street Alternative that is…

· Risking over $400 million in federal funding to the Transbay Transit Center

· Harming property values in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco

· Wasting millions of Prop 1A dollars on study of infeasible alternatives that should be spent on construction”

So that’s the issue. All the deets, below.

Quentin Kopp with youthful HSR supporters at San Francisco City Hall during happier times last year:

The whole magilla:

“As a strong supporter of building High Speed Rail throughout the state and into San Francisco’s downtown Transbay Transit Center, I am appalled at your consideration of the Beale Street Alternative. This study is not only wasteful, it risks over $400 million in federal funding for the Transbay Transit Center and is harming property values in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.

Your study of the Beale Street Alternative was proposed to you by a lobbying and law firm on behalf of an unidentified special interest. This location has already been rejected as a technically and economically infeasible terminus for High Speed Rail in San Francisco. San Franciscans overwhelmingly voted for Proposition 1A to bring high speed rail to our Transit Center. Your study of the Beale Street Alternative, widely thought to be pushed by Board Member Quentin Kopp, is a wasteful expenditure of limited Proposition 1A money that should be applied to construction of the project.

With the passage of Proposition 1A, we believe that your study of the Beale Street Alternative is illegal. The voter approved mandate codifies in State law that the northern terminus for high speed rail will be the Transbay Transit Center.

The Transbay Transit Center is a federally approved project currently in construction in downtown San Francisco that has received the support of the San Francisco electorate on multiple occasions. Over $2 billion in funds have already been secured, independent of Proposition 1A. This Center is designed to accommodate high speed rail to downtown San Francisco.

The existence of this project is reason enough to drop your study of the Beale Street Alternative. Additionally, the Beale Street Alternative would likely result in the taking of more than 1,800 current and future residential units in the South of Market area. Your study alone has made many of our homes unmarketable by the required disclosure of your irresponsible study into any potential home sale. In contrast, the approved downtown extension to Transbay will take only 2 dozen residences. Given San Francisco’s housing crisis, this is a far more reasonable approach.

Meanwhile, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority has applied for $400 million in ARRA funds to build the rail box in the Transit Center. While this application has the support of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Mayor Gavin Newsom, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, we understand that the Federal Rail Authority has expressed concern about your Beale Street Alternative. We are worried that the Beale Street Alternative is not about adequately addressing environmental issues, it’s about political brinkmanship.

It’s time to put high speed rail to San Francisco back on track.

As a supporter of high speed rail and Proposition 1A, I demand you halt your irresponsible study of the infeasible Beale Street Alternatives. I also ask that you hold a formal meeting of the California High Speed Rail Authority in San Francisco, to hold yourselves accountable to the people whose properties and projects you are jeopardizing.”

To Be Continued…